Respect War
by SilverHuntresses
Summary: Everyone ignored Rachel Elizabeth Dare. But what if she could end the war, in her own style? Delay b-day present to my friend ReeReeWithAngst!


No one ever paid attention to Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

In her seventeen years of life, Rachel could count on both her hands the number of days that her parents had paid attention to her. No, the daily platitudes didn't count, just like the concerns about her didn't count- especially when they were don thinking on others instead of her. She even concluded that her nanny only paid attention to her because of the salary.

When she was old enough to understand what was her father's business, she made her decision to stand against him and joining protests. That way, not only people would be seeing that what he does is wrong but she would get some attention thanks to her participation. But that didn't work. The protests were easily ignored by people and life moved on.

She finally thought she could get her wish when she was assigned as the new Oracle of Camp Half-Blood. Finally, a place for herself... she could have friends and be useful for them. She could swim and do arts and crafts and maybe, some sports. Of course, falling in love was prohibited but Rachel was happy with the companionship of her new friends.

The went downhill pretty fast.

Right after the disappearance of her friend Percy Jackson and the return of his girlfriend Annabeth Chase with three younger demigods, Rachel saw herself being ignored by the rest of the campers. Sure, Annabeth would come to talk to her from time to time, mainly to try to distract herself from her boyfriend's disappearance. Rachel didn't mind that, she at least had someone to talk to.

But when Annabeth left for Percy- as she should, not like Rachel was gonna stop her -, she realized how the rest of the campers ignored her. She would only come to her when they needed help but left her alone afterward. Sure, she didn't mind being helpful especially when the spirit of a snake/dragon is living inside of you, but she hoped that someone just... wanted to see her.

Her days went on like this... until the arrival of the Romans.

She went to Mount Olympus as delegated from Camp, trying to keep the peace between both Camps. She also served as a messenger to hand Annabeth's note to Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, the skeptical Roman Praetor. She had barely paid attention to others in the room before leaving.

She should have been paying attention.

She still remembered Clarisse's words as soon as the Romans set camp in front of them.

_"Keep inside the limits of the barrier. One foot out of this place and you're leverage for them and bait for us. You're the Host of the Oracle of Delphi. You're mortal, you're easy to wound, we don't have people to protect you 24/7."_

She had finally understood it that day. She was a commodity, something of value when in need, not something of value just because she existed. The first day she had cried so much she missed dinner- and no one saw fit to come for her. Not even Chiron. From that day on, no one noticed her change of mood or even her physical changes, she had been skipping meals so often that she was getting thinner.

She spent her time on the beach, she could find some peace there. Plus, no one came to the beach lately, not even the nereids- or, if they did, Rachel never saw them. The sunsets were beautiful and relaxing and sometimes, worth enough to paint. That passion of hers had ended after realizing she wasn't worthy, what's the point of expressing yourself when no one is listening? She closed her eyes and hoped to take a short nap.

She woke up several hours later to the smell of food. Still, with her eyes closed, she smiled. It smelled really good. Slowly opening her eyes, she thought she would find the night above her but finding a lantern-light-up tent-like sky was weird. Frowning, she tried to sit up when a hand pulled her back.

"Slowly..." She looked to her side and saw a blonde guy- maybe a few years older than her -with sharp blue eyes and grayish skin. He looked familiar but she couldn't place from where. "You slept a lot, how do you feel?"

"How-" She coughed, her throat was dry. A glass of water was in front of her in seconds. She raised an eyebrow as if saying '_why would I drink something you give me?_'.

"It's just water." He read her gesture easily before prompting her to drink. She took several slow sips with his help. "I'm sure you have questions..."

"Starting to who are you and how did I get here." She began, her voice a bit hoarse. The guy nodded and laid back on his chair, serious.

"I have to say, Oracle, that your memory is not very good... My name is Octavian and I'm the Augur of The Twelfth Legion." Rachel's eyes opened wide. Now she recognized the guy in front of her, she of course had seen him before! She had been captured?! Oh dear, she was so dead when people noticed she was gone- wait, will they notice she was gone? "As for how did you get here, well... that's a short story."

"Will you share it?" Rachel frowned when he didn't continue.

"Of course. We had some scouts around the perimeter, keeping an eye on the barrier to see weak points. One of them had been watching you for two days and, when he noticed no one had come for you, he checked you weren't dead or a trap. That confirmed, he brought you here." Rachel blinked at the story. She wanted to cry, to rant and to argue but she couldn't find strength in herself to do so. "You have only been a day with us."

"What will happen to me now?" She whispered, looking away from her captor. She ignored who had found her but she knew he was in charge while Reyna was away. One way or another, he was her captor.

"We can decide what will happen to you later, our physicians tell me you must eat or won't recover properly." He passed her a plate with the food she had smelled. It was a soup, a simple pea soup, but smelled delicious. A little wary, she began eating the soup under the careful eye of his captor. People who looked for him would come and go, their surprise evident when they saw him there before taking care of their business and leaving.

Meanwhile, Rachel was thinking. Her mind was in overdrive, what should she ask first? What happened to her? Their plans with her? Camp's reaction to her '_kidnapping_'? Why was he being so nice to her? She now remembered how aggressive he had been last time they met, she doubted those feelings disappeared overnight. Maybe they were planning on her getting Stockholm's Syndrom?

"I can't eat more..." She announced, placing the spoon down. Octavian nodded and took the plate away from her... before eating it himself.

"No one was expecting you to eat everything, so I hope you don't mind but I'm hungry." He excused himself. Rachel simply stared at him in surprise. "You should rest, we can talk later."

"According to what you told me, I have slept for three days straight... I guess I can stay up a little longer." She argued with him. He sighed and nodded, gesturing with his empty hand to start asking. "Why are you doing this?"

"The Roman Empire is far superior to the Greeks barbarians... Both cannot exist in peace..." _Not the answer I wanted but I guess it is good to get information about the enemy..._

"Then, what about the East?" Octavian blinked in surprise upon that question, Rachel could see that. "The Middle East has had its deity for millenniums. The different cultures in Orient have the same. Not to mention the African continent and theirs. According to your own rules, crossing to the Ancient Lands, aka, Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, is forbidden. Considered like treason and punishable with exile. Therefore, according to your _own_ rules, you _will_ have to coexist along with several other religions/mythologies. What's so different about ours?"

The little display of logic had left Octavian gaping like a fish. Rachel could see how the tip of his ears was getting red and she expected an explosion towards her. She expected him to show his true face on her but she didn't expect his level of restriction while doing it.

"How- how do you know that?" She shrugged at his question.

"Mortal International History?"

"That means... that means..."

"Look, this is not Tolkien's world-" She ignored his confused face. "-you don't need to rule them all, all you have to do is to get along as much as you can... People- except for extremists -respond much better to peace than war. And communication. You began a war you may not even finish..."

"Extremists?" _Oh, how big is the bubble they live in?_

"Do you have someone who kills for pleasure or because people don't agree with or... or maybe because people are commodities and should be discarded?"

"Bryce Lawrence- Oh Gods!" His face was showing pure horror and was pale- much paler than his usual self.

"You finally realized what you were about to do?" Rachel pointed out gently. Octavian was still silent, staring at her. "Look, if what you want to show is the Roman superiority, there are other ways, you don't have to resort to war..." When he kept silent, she decided to elaborate. "Well, I know for sure that many half-bloods here want to live without danger, you guys have a city! You know how many times I heard Chiron complaining his students die before reaching 25?"

"That must be a joke!" Rachel shook her head.

"I wish... Camp Half-Blood just train them to survive... You guys may be good in organized plans, but the Greeks are good at stand-alone fights... You could do an exchange..."

Rachel didn't realize it but she soon spent the entire night talking to Octavian. It was the longest she had talked to a person before. Octavian asked questions and listened to her answers instead of dismissing them. In exchange, Rachel asked questions and Octavian gave answers, fascinating the young Oracle. Slowly and steadily- without any shouting, which was a record for Octavian -they reached a middle ground.

Romans weren't the best. But neither were the Greeks.

Near the end of their conversation, Octavian confessed to her about his dreams of ruling The Twelfth Legion. How his dreams had fueled his desires and reached to this point. Rachel noticed- but didn't voice out -Gaea's intervention in his dreams. She must have been the one guiding him. She kept this quiet while encouraging by saying that, sometimes, great people don't have to be at the helm of things. Though she did dive in an explanation of who Lady Di was to explain her point.

On the morning of the fourth day- the fourth day in Roman Camp -, Rachel took Octavian to the barrier line. She was greeted by a growling Peleus who relaxed when she stroked his head gently. She waited there, knowing that someone from Camp must have seen them. It didn't take long before Chiron came along with Katie Gardner and Miranda Gardiner.

What neither of them knew was that, coincidentally, it was the day The Seven, along with Reyna and Nico, would return.

"Rachel, child... What are you doing outside the barrier?" Ignoring Chiron and smiling at Demeter's daughters, Rachel showed a rolled-up scroll.

"I have in my hands a written peace treaty between Camp Half-Blood and The Twelfth Legion, signed by myself and the Legion's Augur."

"Octavian signed peace?!" Both seers turned their heads to see the return of The Seven. They were all sweaty, bloody and tired, Rachel was surprised Jason had energies to say something like that. "Please, tell me you at least counteracted anything that could-"

"Praetor Grace-"

"Not one anymore." Rachel was interrupted by a young girl who was holding onto a big buff guy. "He's the new one..."

"Zhang's a Praetor?!" Reyna's arrival couldn't be louder without adding the statue she and Nico were carrying. Seeing how this was getting out of hands, Rachel whistled loud to get attention. And she did.

"Thank you. As I was saying, Former Praetor Grace, this peace treaty not only benefits both parties, here and forever known as Camp Half-Blood and The Twelfth Legion but also works as a push into the new century, also ensuring that not a lot of power is held by few people. This draft has been approved by the current Oracle and Augur, namely Octavian and I, to maintain peace in the country."

"And here I thought you'd get bored in our absence." Percy joked, earning a chuckle from her. Annabeth smiled too.

"If you think is good enough for our benefit, I don't need to revise it." Rachel tried not to cry in happiness while hearing her friend. "I wish to talk to you later but we're all dead in our feet and need of a check-up from a healer..." Percy led the group into Camp Half-Blood, giving her a thumb's up in his way. Reyna and Leo were the only ones not so happy, she will discover why later.

* * *

"Morning, Rachel..." Rachel yawned before she could properly greet back, smiling softly.

"Morning, Rose... Thanks for breakfast..." She thanked the dryad that was turning greener in happiness. She kept smiling while sitting down to have her breakfast. "Anything interesting last night?"

"A couple of satyrs claim to have heard someone outside the limits but they are unsure what was it, as they were novices in-training..." Rachel nodded before grabbing a big cup of coffee and winking at her. She took the cup to the office, trying not to spill it while people passed her by, in all states of rushes.

"No running in the house!"

"Yes, Auntie Rachel!"

"Morning, Aunt Rachel!" Rachel smirked and knocked on the office to find an up-to-the-ceiling-covered-up-in-paperwork Octavian.

"Did you sleep anything?" Octavian looked up from his paper and squinted at her.

"Is morning already?"

"7:30 to be exact... I'm surprised you didn't realize because of all the noise coming from the house-" The loud sound of breaking crystal interrupted her light scolding. "I hope it was Mother's antique vase..." She continued, hopeful.

"That was last week, remember?" Octavian chuckled, taking the cup of coffee she was holding.

"You need a shower and a shave. Classes begin in an hour and, for the life of me, the kids are claiming your History lessons are better than mine..." She looked thoughtful at him. "What the Hades you let them do?" Octavian simply smirked.

"For me to know and you to find out-"

"Sorry to interrupt, Augur, Oracle..." A satyr barged in, bowing a little. "But some children are getting closer to the limits... they seemed to be chased by something..."

"Time to clock in, I guess..." Octavian sighed before looking at the satyr. "Let them pass and guide them here, have a healer on standby and something to eat... We'll see them shortly." The satyr nodded and left, leaving Octavian with a smirking Rachel. "What?"

"Like you don't like this better..." Rachel teased him, earning a smug Octavian. She still remembered the time back when they signed the Treaty. Only a small faction on each side was in disagreement- mainly the Ares' children, those only thing brute force solve things. The trick was to deal with the ones wanting to include things that would benefit them. Rachel solved that quickly by saying the Oracle and Augur should be stationed with the half-bloods.

If they wanted a prophecy, they had to earn it.

And since the old pompous Senators of the Legion didn't want to leave their 'high mountain', they weren't bothered by them anymore. And since Octavian wasn't isolated in a cold temple all day- just like Rachel wasn't isolated in her cave anymore -, his behavior started to mellow and was happier to be sought out by half-bloods that were looking for him.

What he also liked was to be respected and Rachel noticed he loved to listen to others and give advice about it. Soon, instead of gutting teddybears, Octavian had his own business by advising both The Twelfth Legion and Camp Half-Blood. The respect he craved was finally at his reach and it didn't take long to walk up to Rachel and admit it was better to show superiority like this. Rachel simply smiled at him and said nothing in reply.

Rachel, meanwhile, realized that many orphaned half-bloods were not being treated nicely in foster homes- because of the 'troublemaker' streak -, so she decided to occupy her free time while not giving prophecies away by opening a half-blood foster home/school. Hestia and Artemis, the goddesses of Family and Children respectively always pointed out in the right direction the children where and they became the patrons of the home.

Apollo was so displeased and showed his annoy self in protest.

Octavian may have cowered in fear but not Rachel. She let the god finish his rant before kicking him out by saying 'if you don't care for children, maybe you shouldn't have them!'. Apollo stopped fuzzing and started to help too.

Realizing Octavian's been waving his hand in front of her face for a few minutes, Rachel came back from her musing time.

"Why you go 'memory lane' every time this happens...?" He wondered to her. She simply smirked at him.

"C'mon..." She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the office, ready for the day.

Long gone were the days where they fought for respect.

This is a new war.

And they were winning it.

* * *

_Happy birthday to my pen-pal/co-writer/friend, **ReeReeWithAngst**! I hope you enjoy this!_


End file.
